Mikhail Gorbachev

The world needs a demilitarization of international relations.

I am still a communist. But I am a different kind of communist.

The most puzzling development in politics during the last decade is the apparent determination of Western European leaders to re-create the Soviet Union in Western Europe.

The United States has taken the role of a self-appointed sheriff in world affairs.

The Baltic states were annexed under Stalin. That’s a fact.

The nuclear arms race is madness. It is like two people sitting on a powder keg, each with a match.

The Soviet model was doomed from the start.

The West thinks it won the Cold War. That is arrogance.

Perestroika was not a betrayal of socialism. It was its salvation.

The market is a good servant but a bad master.

If what you have done yesterday still looks big to you, you haven't done much today.

The one who is late is punished by having to wait for a long time.

I am a confirmed atheist and I believe that to try to introduce God into a discussion about the Soviet Union is a mistake.

I don't think there's anything more important than a good laugh, and I don't think I've ever been with a group of people who couldn't find something to laugh about.

I still believe in the ideals of the 1917 revolution.

Perestroika is a revolution without shots.

My wife, Raisa, is a very strong personality, and she is very much a part of my life.

I like to talk. I'm a talker. I love to talk.

I'm not a man of many words, but I'm a man who means what he says.

We are moving towards a new world, a world of common security, common prosperity, and common destiny.